By Vladimir Brezina
A smart mouse-trap or a smart-mouse trap? Where are those hyphens when you need them? We’ll have to test this trapped mouse in the lab to see if it is a smart mouse. Probably it isn’t all that smart if it got trapped in a mouse trap, but then again, it is a smart mouse trap…
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
 | CurlsnSkirls on The First Leg! |
 | Johna Till Johnson on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on The First Leg! |
 | Marilyn Albright on The First Leg! |
| CurlsnSkirls on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on Looks Like They Made It! |
 | Pit on Looks Like They Made It! |
| Johna Till Johnson on More Scenes From the Nort… |
| CurlsnSkirls on Halfway There! |
 | Larry Jensen on More Scenes From the Nort… |
| Johna Till Johnson on R2AK: Scenes From the Northern… |
 | Frank Winters on R2AK: Scenes From the Northern… |
| Johna Till Johnson on Halfway There! |
| CurlsnSkirls on Halfway There! |
| Johna Till Johnson on And They’re Off! |
Wind Against Current 
Look at pic #3… he is signing, “You have exactly 4 seconds to let me out of here OR ELSE!!!!”
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LOL!
I failed to understand his gesture at the time—another instance of human-animal miscommunication—but now that you’ve pointed it out, it’s only too obvious what he meant…
Fortunately, the miscommunication did not lead, in this instance, to tragic results. I didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag :-), but this happened some time ago. And we did release him, although after considerably more than four seconds, in Central Park. Here is his first sniff of freedom:
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Glad to hear there was a happy ending! Unless he leapt out and gnawed your ankle before he scurried away…
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He leapt out and disappeared into the bushes immediately after I took this photo, but he did not stop on his way to gnaw my ankle, fortunately…
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Please don’t test him/her in the lab! S/he looks really anxious to escape, as I would be…
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:-) Don’t worry! See comment above…
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Aw, cute green mouse is released…I’m so glad :-)
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So were we! :-)
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Yes, not so cute when in the house!!
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Quite so… there’s quite a bit more to our mouse saga—but that’s another post ;-)
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This is a very random post for you…what brought this on? I am vastly curious? : )
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Not random at all, but part of a carefully thought-out plan :-)
Our mouse post has been in the Drafts folder since 2011. The world was not yet ready for it—until now! And this is just a preliminary installment…
Seriously, we have at least 50 draft posts that we began at one time or other, that we finish and post (or not) as the mood takes us, or, more and more these days, as our schedules permit…
It’s not all about kayaking, you know ;-)
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I was 8 words away from asking why that rodent did not have on a flotation device on and was not perched at the helm ! : )))
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“`Nice? It’s the ONLY thing,’ said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. `Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING–absolute nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,’ he went on dreamily: `messing–about–in–boats; messing—-‘”
That was a Water Rat, not a Mouse, but still…
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Yes I have noticed Vlad and Johan .
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:-)
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He’s smart enough to now have reached some internet fame. ;-)
Cute – from a distance.
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He was just the first of many… Where one forges the way, many imitators soon follow ;-)
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Ugh! And eeeek!
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Not at all! They have provided comic relief, more than anything else :-)
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Umm.. Vlad, darling, this was Souris, was it not? In which case it’s “she”….:-) Got to be gender-correct on this, right?
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Yes, it was most likely “she”… I’ll let Johna explain how she was able to tell :-)
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We have used the HaveAHart friendly traps. They work well too, although i would be less intimidated to carry one of these to mouse freedom.
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Freedom, such as it is—I think they would prefer to be in the house rather than outside ;-)
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Agreed. :-)
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Mouse! Eeek! Where did you find this trap (Although I’m hoping to NEVER have to look for it.)?
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It’s widely available: Google “Smart Mouse Trap.” It’s made by Seabright Laboratories, and available from Amazon, for example, which is where I think we got it.
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Thank you! We had a problem last year but haven’t had one since and hoping it will stay that way but it’s good to know about this trap.
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Wow, the comments really enlarge the story, don’t they?
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Well, I was just going to post a few photos and leave the story for another post, but my hand was forced ;-) Still, there is a lot more to the story than has so far emerged in these comments!
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Great ending
:)
I let them out and back in they come :(
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Well, it’s unlikely that this particular mouse made it’s way back through the city streets… but there were more where this one came from :-)
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:) That I know to be the TRUTH! lol
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“Vastlycurious”, I wondered the same thing: “This is a very random post for you…what brought this on? I am vastly curious?” Beyond being curious, I was actually saddened to see the mouse in the trap. But after reading the response regarding it being released, I felt relieved. I don’t remember Central Park having any snakes (except in their zoo)…let’s hope this lil’ gal is truly a smart-mouse and stays out of the reptile house.
Vladimir, thanks for practicing humane rodent control…I’m glad you’re nice to mice!
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Well, the whole point of that kind of trap is to release the trapee—although I have my doubts whether the mouse is going to survive very long in Central Park.
We are nice to mice, and cockroaches, and ants…nice to a fault! :-) We don’t want to kill them, but we really don’t want to live with them either…
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You’re right, unwanted crittters are bad housemates. A particularly awful one I encountered was a brown recluse spider. Now THAT was a horrible experience! It snuck up on me, bit my leg, and left its venom in me. It led to many trips to the MD for wound care…but my leg is intact. I was one of the fortunate ones. Beware of spiders!
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Sounds bad! Fortunately, we don’t have many spiders in NYC—just cockroaches, mice, rats, and alligators in the sewers!
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Yep, watch out for those sewer gators! hehe
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Poor wee beastie……….
Glad to see you set ‘her’ free.
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Yes, it probably was a “she”…
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You go around checking their gender??? :-D
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It seems that way from the photos (and others not shown here)… Johna in particular knows about this, having kept mice as pets when she was little :-)
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We also have non-lethal mouse traps at home. Although I can’t really say it’s super efficient (I tend to catch them more often when they’re trying to sneak in and out of the trash can, and then only do I put them in the trap, while they wait their release in the wilderness, i.e. the small path next to the canal)
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I don’t know how efficient they are. We caught two mice rather easily, almost as soon as we put out the trap. But then we failed to catch a couple of others…
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They learn…
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They do, and also they can smell the previous mouse in the trap unless it’s washed properly between mice…
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In photo #3 I kept seeing a little pair of spectacles perched on his nose, an unhappy Professor Mouse caught in such an undignified situation!
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Quite so! But it happens to all of us…
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